Gaza massacres (27 December 2008 – )
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousand more injured as Israel continues to assault the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza — the majority of them children and refugees — from the air, sea and sky.
On 27 December, Israel began its bombardment on Gaza and then on 3 January began its ground offensive. At the end of 8 January in Gaza, at least 763 Gazans had been killed, including more than 200 children, and more than 3,000 injured since 27 December, according to Al Jazeera.
Israel claims that it is targeting Hamas armed fighters and infrastructure, ostensibly in response to the firing of homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel. However, field investigations by the Gaza-based human rights organization Al Mezanshow that United Nations-administered schools, mosques, universities, emergency medical crews, private homes and other civilian objects have all been in Israel’s sights.
Among those killed on the first day of bombing, when more than 100 tons of bombs were dropped on the tiny coastal enclave, included police officers who were attending a graduation ceremony, school children heading home after a day of study, and other Gazans killed without warning as they were conducting their normal business.
Entire families have been wiped out during the air strikes and shelling, including that of Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan who was extrajudicially executed along with his family in their home in a Gaza refugee camp. More than 40 were killed on 6 January when Israeli forces shelled the United Nations-administered Fakhoura school in the Jabalia refugee camp, where families who had been displaced by the bombing were seeking shelter. The UN has demanded an independent investigation and its spokespersons assert that GPS coordinates of all UN locations were given to Israel to prevent such an atrocity. Israel recanted its claim that resistance fighters released fire on Israeli soldiers from the school, which has been categorically denied by UN officials.
The death toll will most likely rise as corpses are recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings and the critically injured die of their wounds. The International Committee of the Red Cross has protested Israeli forces preventing them from evacuating casualties. Many will likely die because Gaza’s hospitals — already chronically short of medicines and supplies due to the Israeli siege — are unable to cope with the scale of the catastrophe. Medical workers face grave danger as they respond to the sites of Israeli strikes; according to the World Health Organization, as of 8 January, 21 medical workers had been killed and more than 30 injured since 27 December.
The bloody operation in Gaza comes after the expiration of a six-month-long ceasefire between Israel and resistance groups in Gaza, including Hamas. Israel had broken the ceasefire on 4 November, when it extrajudicially executed six Palestinians in Gaza whom it said was digging tunnels to Israel. During the five previous months of the ceasefire, Hamas had refrained from firing rockets and prevented other groups from doing so. However, Israel failed to ease the nearly two-year-long embargo on the Gaza Strip that has crippled economic life and brought the area to the brink of a humanitarian crisis — one of Israel’s obligations under the ceasefire.
Instead, in Israel, where the fate of the Gaza Strip has become part of politicking as the country gears up for an election, leaders blamed Hamas for the carnage and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cynically appealed, “to the people of Gaza, you are not our enemy.” While the other three members of the so-called International Quartet for Middle East Peace criticized what they called Israel’s “excessive” use of force, the US refrained from doing so. White House spokesperson Gordon Johndroe stated from Texas, where President George W. Bush was presently vacationing: “Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop.”
The ongoing assault on Gaza is the largest Israeli military operation in the territory occupied during the 1967 War. Although Israel unilaterally withdrew its illegal settler population from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it remained the occupying power as it controlled the borders, sea and airspace, as well as the population registry, and regularly carried out sonic booms over the area, terrorizing the population. Israeli forces have also frequently carried out extrajudicial executions of Palestinian activists in Gaza, killing scores of bystanders as well.
Gaza hospitals were unable to cope with the situation as Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip for a year and a half has prevented the importing of medical supplies and equipment. As the morgues filled to capacity, corpses lined the hallways of Gaza hospitals. Hospitals were forced to turn away many of the injured due to the lack of space and supplies.
The massive air strikes came after a food crisis broke out in Gaza, as Israel’s banning of imports into the Strip have depleted stocks of flour and cooking gas, causing some bakeries — the few still in operation — to resort to baking bread made out of animal feed. On 18 December, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) was forced to stop its food aid delivery to 750,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip. Though it briefly resumed services in January 2009 after a “humanitarian corridor” was established, and a daily three-hour ceasefire was declared, the United Nations announced it was ceasing all services after Israeli forces targeted and killed a UN aid worker and wounded others on 8 January.
Israel’s measures of collective punishment on the Gaza Strip are resulting in “the breakdown of an entire society,” according to economist Sara Roy, who asks in a commentary published recently by The London Review of Books, “How can keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of Israel?”
The devastating attack on Gaza was described as “willful killing” by leading Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations, and therefore constitute “a war crime.” The organizations stated: “Both the time and location of these attacks also indicate a malicious intent to inflict as many casualties as possible with many of the police stations located in civilian population centers and the time of the attacks coinciding with the end of the school day resulting in the deaths of numerous children.”
The assault was met with loud calls for a boycott of Israel, including a boycott appeal from by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, which stated on the day of the massacres: “Israel seems intent to mark the end of its 60th year of existence the same way it has established itself — perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 1948, the majority of the indigenous Palestinian people were ethnically cleansed from their homes and land, partly through massacres like Deir Yassin; today, the Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are refugees, do not even have the choice to seek refuge elsewhere. Incarcerated behind ghetto walls and brought to the brink of starvation by the siege, they are easy targets for Israel’s indiscriminate bombing.”
And while government leaders and the US president-elect remain resoundingly silent over the ongoing massacres in Gaza (with the exception of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, which removed Israel’s ambassador from the country), millions of people around the world have taken to the streets to express their solidarity with Palestinians under siege. Analysts say that Arab regimes seen as being in collusion or supporting the siege and massacres, such as the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, will not be unscathed by the popular anger towards these policies.
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| Palestinian firemen try to extinguish a fire following an Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 27 December 2008. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages) |
- Olmert’s claims revive specter of “Israel Lobby” Daniel Luban (14 January 2009)
- Resolution 1860: fig leaf to Arab failure, Hasan Abu Nimah (14 January 2009)
- EI’s Ali Abunimah speaks about media coverage of Gaza conflict, SBS Radio (14 January 2009)
- Study: International law seldom newsworthy in war on Gaza, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (13 January 2009)
- Blueprint for Gaza attack was long planned, Jonathan Cook (12 January 2009)
- Will Hizballah intervene in the Gaza conflict? Amal Saad-Ghorayeb (11 January 2009)
- Abettors of war crimes will be held accountable Adri Nieuwhof and Daniel Machover (10 January 2009)
- In Washington, all roads lead to Tehran, Daniel Luban (10 January 2009)
- Criticism of Israel’s war crimes mounts, Jonathan Cook (9 January 2009)
- EI investigation: The US media and the attack on Gaza, Shervan Sardar (8 January 2009)
- US media didn’t report Israeli ceasefire violation, Jim Lobe and Ali Gharib (8 January 2009)
- Bombing to make the Gaza prison even more secure for Israel, Jonathan Cook (7 January 2009)
- “By choice they made themselves immune”, Saree Makdisi (6 January 2009)
- Israel’s fabricated rocket crisis, Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker (6 January 2009)
- The BBC: Eyeless in Gaza, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad (6 January 2009)
- Israel’s blonde bombshells and real bombs in Gaza, Yosefa Loshitzky (5 January 2009)
- The Gaza Ghetto Uprising, Joseph Massad (4 January 2009)
- On collaboration and resistance of the oppressed, Ziyaad Lunat (3 January 2009)
- Israel’s righteous fury and its victims in Gaza, Ilan Pappe (2 January 2009)
- Obama’s deadly silence, Ali Abunimah (2 January 2009)
- The real goal of the slaughter in Gaza, Jonathan Cook (1 January 2009)
- Is the UN complicit in Israel’s massacre in Gaza?, Omar Barghouti (1 January 2009)
- Egypt seen as complicit in Gaza assault, Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani (31 December 2008)
- New birth pangs for the Middle East, Hasan Abu Nimah (31 December 2008)
- “Peace process” blown to bits, Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani (31 December 2008)
- Where peace is a problem, Haim Bresheeth (31 December 2008)
- Israel electioneering with bombs, Jonathan Cook (30 December 2008)
- Falling into the moral abyss, Titus North (30 December 2008)
- Meet the Lebanese Press: Gazing towards Gaza, Hicham Safieddine (29 December 2008)
- The dogs of war, Osamah Khalil (29 December 2008)
- Gaza massacres must spur us to action, Ali Abunimah (27 December 2008)
Diaries and voices from Gaza
- It was like “The Day After” Dr. Asad Abu Sharekh (15 January 2009)
- Cease fire, cease siege, Kathy Kelly (14 January 2009)
- Every second there is a bomb, Adham Khalil (13 January 2009)
- The gates of Hell, the window to Heaven, Laila El-Haddad (13 January 2009)
- How does one prepare for a war crime? Maha Mehanna (13 January 2009)
- Targeting a cup of tea in Gaza, Rami Almeghari (12 January 2009)
- Israel is targeting medics, Eva Bartlett (12 January 2009)
- Of Gaza’s 876 killed, 186 were children and 61 women, Al Mezan (12 January 2009)
- We talk in silence, we stand together, Live from Palestine (12 January 2009)
- Gaza is sinking in a river of blood, Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi (11 January 2009)
- All signs point to systematic targeting of civilians, Ewa Jasiewicz (11 January 2009)
- Witnessing a war waged against your people, Mohammed Abu Asaker (11 January 2009)
- Phoning my in-laws in Gaza, Xen Hasan (11 January 2009)
- Sleep hard to come by in bombarded Gaza, Eva Bartlett (10 January 2009)
- Tunnel vision, Kathy Kelly (10 January 2009)
- Hitting the wall, Laurie King (10 January 2009)
- Nowhere to hide from the bombing, Laila El-Haddad (9 January 2009)
- Too much to mourn in Gaza, Eva Bartlett (8 January 2009)
- Dr. Ehab isn’t there anymore, Rami Almeghari (8 January 2009)
- Testimony: “I fear nothing now” (7 January 2009)
- A dad, a refugee and a reporter in Gaza, Rami Almeghari (7 January 2009)
- Photostory: World demonstrates for Gaza, pt. 2, Photostory (7 January 2009)
- I will tell you how Arafa died, Eva Bartlett (6 January 2009)
- Witnesses to Israel’s war crimes, Rami Almeghari (6 January 2009)
- Resisting to protect our own, Safa Joudeh (5 January 2009)
- Scared but steadfast in Gaza, Rami Almeghari (4 January 2009)
- Trapped, traumatized and terrified, Laila El-Haddad (4 January 2009)
- Testimony: “They found her body in the kitchen”, B’Tselem (4 January 2009)
- “They know no limits now”, Eva Bartlett (3 January 2009)
- “Family flees Israeli fire once again, Rami Almeghari (3 January 2009)
- “Family flees Israeli fire once again, Rami Almeghari (3 January 2009)
- In Gaza, punishing a nation, Rami Almeghari (2 January 2009)
- “Creative anarchy” in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Akram Habeeb (1 January 2009)
- “Do these traumatized children have rockets?”, Fida Qishta (1 January 2009)
- For the sake of Gaza’s 800,000 children, Miko Peled (1 January 2009)
- I can’t hug my mother in Gaza, Ghada Ageel (1 January 2009)
- “The radio reported that my friend was under the rubble”, Dr. Haider Eid (31 December 2008)
- New Year in Gaza: “Our fireworks are the Israeli missiles”, Rami Almeghari (31 December 2008)
- Bloodied in Gaza as the world silently watches, Laila El-Haddad (30 December 2008)
- Deserted streets and fear as Israel demolishes Gaza, Rami Almeghari (30 December 2008)
- Why would Israel bomb a university?, Dr. Akram Habeeb (29 December 2008)
- “They are wrong to think we are the terrorists”, Eman Mohammed (29 December 2008)
- The longest night of my life, Safa Joudeh (28 December 2008)
- Gaza: “This is only the beginning”, Ewa Jasiewicz (28 December 2008)
- “Shabbat Shalom” in Gaza, Rami Almeghari (27 December 2008)
- “The amount of death and destruction is inconceivable”, Safa Joudeh (27 December 2008)
- The rains of death in Gaza, Laila El-Haddad (27 December 2008)
Humanitarian updates, action and advocacy
- Israel bombs UN agency headquarters in Gaza City, Interview (15 January 2009)
- Israel fires on UN agency headquarters, civilians fleeing violence, Al Mezan (15 January 2009)
- Thousand deaths do not put off EU, David Cronin (15 January 2009)
- Eighty-six percent of those killed in Gaza were civilians, Al Mezan (14 January 2009)
- Anger begins to knock at Israel’s borders, Mel Frykberg (14 January 2009)
- Israel bars Arab parties from election, Jonathan Cook (14 January 2009)
- Gaza humanitarian situation deteriorates as death toll rises, Al Mezan (14 January 2009)
- Ceasefire moves fading away, Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani (14 January 2009)
- Gaza sewage lagoons could collapse, IRIN (13 January 2009)
- Is Gaza a testing ground for experimental weapons? Jonathan Cook (13 January 2009)
- Israelis rain phosphorous bombs over Gaza, Mel Frykberg (12 January 2009)
- Tensions running high on the Egypt-Gaza border, IRIN (11 January 2009)
- Thousands of Gaza houses destroyed and damaged by Israeli strikes, Al Mezan (11 January 2009)
- Civilians deliberately targeted: 194 of Gaza’s 830 killed are children, Al Mezan (10 January 2009)
- Israel ignores UN Security Council resolution, Haider Rizvi (10 January 2009)
- Aid groups dispute Israeli claims in Gaza attacks, Thalif Deen (10 January 2009)
- Gaza death toll at 771, including 189 children and 58 women, Al Mezan, (9 January 2009)
- Testimony: Israeli troops open fire on those fleeing shelling, B’Tselem (9 January 2009)
- Threat of epidemics in Gaza, IRIN (9 January 2009)
- Tens of thousands flee Rafah, IRIN (9 January 2009)
- Egypt closes Gaza border to aid, Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani, (9 January 2009)
- US weaponry facilitates killings in Gaza, Thalif Deen (9 January 2009)
- Testimony: Nowhere is safe from Israel’s bombing, B’Tselem (8 January 2009)
- Testimony: Gaza family massacred, survivors detained, B’Tselem (8 January 2009)
- Coalition of int’l orgs call on EU to suspend “upgrade” with Israel (8 January 2009)
- Red Cross prevented from accessing injured, starving survivors in Gaza, Al Mezan (8 January 2009)
- Claiming impartiality, Europe leans towards Israel, David Cronin (8 January 2009)
- Israel may face charges for war crimes, Mel Frykberg (7 January 2009)
- Gaza short of food, IRIN (7 January 2009)
- Israel’s Gaza offensive death toll rises to 668, Al Mezan (7 January 2009)
- Czech EU presidency misses the mark on Gaza, Adri Nieuwhof and Daniel Machover (6 January 2009)
- Israel attacks schools, ambulances, Mel Frykberg (6 January 2009)
- Two schools housing refugees shelled in bloodied Gaza, Al Mezan (6 January 2009)
- UN diplomats frustrated at Gaza impasse, Haider Rizvi (6 January 2009)
- Egypt government feels its people’s ire, Per Bjoerklund (5 January 2009)
- Eighty-nine children and 30 women amongst Gaza’s confirmed dead, Al Mezan (5 January 2009)
- Water, sewage system “collapsing” in Gaza, says official, IRIN (5 January 2009)
- Israel collaborater recruiter punked, The Electronic Intifada (4 January 2009)
- US academic group decries the targeting of schools in Gaza, California Scholars for Academic Freedom (4 January 2009)
- Israel invades Gaza, blocks ceasefire, Mel Frykberg (4 January 2009)
- Fifty-two Gazans killed as Israeli forces invade, Al Mezan (4 January 2009)
- Israeli forces bomb schools and mosque, Al Mezan (3 January 2009)
- Photostory: World demonstrates for Gaza, The Electronic Intifada (3 January 2009)
- New York City labor group condemns attacks on Gaza, New York City Labor Against the War (3 January 2009)
- Hundreds dead, thousands injured and displaced, Al Mezan (2 January 2009)
- Israel extrajudicially executes Hamas leader and his family, Al Mezan (1 January 2009)
- “Civilians are paying the price in Gaza”, Haider Rizvi (31 December 2008)
- The civilian targets of Israel’s bombing, Al Mezan (31 December 2008)
- “If there is an Israeli invasion hospitals will collapse”, IRIN (31 December 2008)
- Rights orgs: UN body must act to end Gaza war crimes, various undersigned (30 December 2008)
- Gaza’s main hospital struggling to cope, IRIN (30 December 2008)
- Union urges immediate boycott following Gaza university bombing, Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (30 December 2008)
- Israeli shelling badly damages human rights offices, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (30 December 2008)
- Only mild Security Council criticism for Israeli attacks, Thalif Deen (29 December 2008)
- Gaza without electricity, water, IRIN (29 December 2008)
- Gaza carnage sparks protests throughout Palestine, Mel Frykberg (28 December 2008)
- Most Gaza casualties were non-combatants, civilians, Al Mezan (28 December 2008)
- Palestinian leaders in Israel declare strike, call for boycott, The Higher Follow Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel (29 December 2008)
- Rights orgs: Israel’s willful killings a war crime, Various undersigned (27 December 2008)
- Boycott committee: “Stop the massacre in Gaza – boycott Israel now!”, Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (27 December 2008)
Gaza blogs:
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